Awaking Darkness
by Barbara C
Summary: Pre-S2: Sinbad is unable to cope with the loss of a friend who was cut down in battle.


**Disclaimer: **All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Original characters and plot are, however, the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made from this work.

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**Awaking Darkness**  
by Barbara C.

Sinbad saw the blade arc towards Maeve. "Nooooooo!" he cried out as he ran towards her, stumbling over fallen bodies. But he was too late. He saw the blade slice deeply into the sorceress's unprotected back. He saw her eyes grow wide momentarily in intense pain as she spun around. He saw the blood, her life force, flow from the wound. He saw the fear in her eyes once she realized what had happened; once she realized the inevitable furutre. He saw her crumple to her knees, then drop lifelessly to the ground.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooo!" he screamed running towards her. Before anyone else could act, Sinbad's blade had severed the sword arm off Maeve's attacker and had continued along its path imbedding itself more than half way through the man's torso.

Rage poured through the captain as he watched his victim fall. Sinbad didn't take the time to think about the fallen man, however. Quickly he moved to kneel beside Maeve.

She was lying in a growing pool of her own blood. Her eyes were closed; her mouth, open slightly. If not for the blood and the pallor to her skin, one would think she was asleep. But no, Sinbad already knew. She was dead. Lifting the sorceress's limp body into his arms he cradled it, wishing that he was wrong, that she might still be alive; that perhaps there was something of her left... He slowly shook his head at the thoughts, hopes really, that were blazing through his mind. Then, he wept. Her soul had already moved on. Taking his along with it.

He didn't know how long he sat there cradling Maeve's lifeless body. The fight they had been involved in had ended. As to when? The sailor again did not know; hen had closed his eyes to will-away the pain. All that he was concerned with was Maeve. HIS Maeve. His life; his love; his heart; his soul. A hand rested on his shoulder. He looked up to see Doubar standing beside him. Tears welled up in the large man's eyes, yet he did not cry.

"She is gone little brother," he said. There was an unmistakable roughness to his voice, the result of built up emotions wanting to find release.

As Sinbad lowered his gaze, it fell to rest upon the man he had slain, shock tore through him. "I killed that man. I killed..."

"Yes, you did little brother. But you were trying to save Maeve."

"Too late. I was too late."

He wept.

The following weeks and months were not kind to the crew. Sinbad had retreated to a state of melancholy. Gone was the laughing, smiling young man with his youthful exuberance and zest for life; in his place a despondent business man with a heart of solid gold emerged; cold, hard, metalic gold. No more battles with sea creatures or chasing off after damsels in distress, he wasn't the same. He would never be the same.

Doubar and the others attempted to take all in stride, but often Sinbad's behavior was too much for them to take. Tensions were building and tempers were running high among the crew of the Nomad.

When in port the crew began to split off from Sinbad, wanting to stay as far away from their obnoxious captain as possible. Rongar and Firouz, though they didn't want to, felt compelled to do the same. Now, while in port, Doubar took to looking after his brother and the young man's drinking, rather than enjoying the drink and women. On one such night when the hour was late and Doubar was more sober than he would have liked to have been, he snapped.

"Anuzzer dink!" Sinbad demanded of the barmaid.

"What you need is a good hard spanking," Doubar growled.

"What I neeeedeed, is fer 'ou ta le'me'lone! Ya big ol'- Oof!" Sinbad sounded as Doubar thumped him in the stomach.

"'Nuzzer dink!" Sinbad shouted.

"You need-"

"Wan'know wha' I need? I need Maeve."

"But she's gone," Doubar stated somberly.

"Buh she's gone," Sinbad continued. "An' she won't be comin' back. Even though I lov'er." Sinbad looked woefully up at his older brother. "I loved her. I really did." He looked back down into his empty glass. "She was my life. The light of my life. The apple of my eye. The cream of the crop. My heart, my soul, my... everything." His mood swung suddenly to anger. "And she took it away! She went away and left me! 'Snot fair! Ev'ryone's always gonna go leavin' me and 'snot fair and... and..." he ran out of things to say, laid his head down in his arms and wept.

"You wanted another drink?" The barmaid asked coming up to their table with a filled glass in hand. Sinbad's head came up. "Don't wanna dink new. I wanna woman."

"No you don't Sinbad. Think about what you're saying. What you're doing. Think about Maeve."

"She left me. I wan' anuzzer uhn."

Doubar stared at his brother. "You lost your soul Sinbad."

"Who neezed a soul? I don't! I don't need anyt'ing. I don't needs anyone. I lost everyone. Our parents, Dim-Dim, Leah, Meave. I don't care anymore! I wan' die! I don't care. My heart's gone, so's my soul. Doesn't matter no more."

"I'm here, Sinbad. Doubar, your brother. You haven't lost me. You will not loose me."

"Jus' haven't gotten 'round to it yet. You'll see. You'll see. I'll lose you to. Jus' you see." Sinbad's attention was drawn elsewhere momentarily. "'Nuzzer dink!" he shouted.

"Your soul is gone, Sinbad. It's not lost. It's gone. For good. No, not for good... for ever." Doubar stated morosely.

"I know that. Hey, didn't I already say that? She took m'soul wit' her, Maeve did. An' I don't care 'bout nothin' else what you think. Understand me? Now where's my wominan?"

Doubar scowled at his brother. "Oh, I understand all right." With anger coursing through him, he got up and left the tavern. Let Sinbad deal with his own ghosts and problems.

Sinbad took a swig of the bitter ale that the barmaid had set before him. "Where's my wom'n... wonam... wumnuh... Ahh, hell! Bring on duh girls!"

"Right here, love," a tall, gorgeous red head said leaning close to him.

"Maeve?" he asked the woman. "Maeve?" he had to be delirious. He rubbed his eyes. "Maeve is 'at you?"

"Yes, Sinbad I'm here." Maeve stood over him. Her curly red hair nearly tickling his face. She wore white. She looked beautiful.

"You're beautiful," he commented.

"Thank you," the apparition said.

The captain took into further account that it was a loose gown of some sort that she was wearing. It was cut awfully low in the front for her to be, "An angel," Sinbad murmured reaching out toward her, wanting to stroke her face, to touch her to see if this was all a dream or not. But whatever Allah dressed his angels in was Allah's choice, he thought, not his.

"Not quite," his angel said taking his hand in hers. "If you had gotten there a second later I would have been killed. You saved my life."

Not catching on to what was happening or had gone on Sinbad used the all around, universal, dumb question, "Huh?"

"Oh, you shouldn't be talking. You've been out of it for days. You got a nasty gash on your forehead and then..." Tears began to well up in the woman's eyes. "I thought you'd die for sure and leave me...and leave me." She leaned down and hugged him, pinning his arms down so he couldn't feel her up.

"Wom'n."

She pulled back and smiled. "Yes, I am."

He didn't say anything, just laid there thinking about all that happened about Maeve's death and about everything. He knew this apparition couldn't be real. She... Leaned down? Hadn't he been at a bar? Hadn't... Ohh, his head hurt, but he did open his eyes one more time before falling asleep.

What he saw were the worried faces of his closest friends and his brother sitting around his cot in a cabin in the Nomad. It had all been a dream. Just a dream.

Hey, he sluggishly thought to himself, if Maeve was alive, that meant he didn't need another woman. He had one already. He'd just have to make sure she knew it.

As soon as he got up though. And after his blasted head stopped hurting.

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**Authors Note:** This was a dark speculation of what might happen after the lead actress left following the first season. However, I'm pretty much incapable of unhappy endings.


End file.
